Best DVB TV Card

Gillykid

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Hey all,

Built most of my HTPC over the weekend - very very pleased! In the market now for a DVB TV card now. I want all the usual channels plus the ablity to pause live TV and record programs to DVD quality.

What do people recommend for the card? Preferably needs to be PCI, but I could live with USB.

The only one I know of so far is the WinTV NOVA - any one had any experience with this?

Cheers

G
 
how good an aerial do you need with these or other types as im planning to use one at work so will a portable aerial do?
 
Originally posted by GrahamC
Just installed a Nebula PCI DTV card from here.

Good results so far. :smashin:

Looks good on paper - whats the analogue in like? Would be interested in getting Playstation or VCR through the card and this does have an advantage over the NOVA.

Any other cards out there peeps?
 
I use an Avermedia DVB-T card, Software could be better, and made easier to install under XP. I had a new external aerial fitted as well, and it located 99 channels, eg, STV for Edinburgh, Grampian and Borders. Nice clear picture and sound and is easy to record.

The software is let down by small things such as no teletext support.
 
The software that comes with the nebula card is streets ahead of the software that comes with the Nova-T, plus you get a remote control and can run it like a real tv.

Used a Nova-T for nearly a year, and the software was crap, the support was crapper and I ended up trying to tweak the software just to make it usable.

The DigiTV card software is not perfect, but it knocks spots off the Nova-T and is getting better with major new functionality every few months.

Baggy, I have an indoor (loft) aerial with a mast head pre-amp and line of sight to transmiiter about 30 miles away and it works fine, with just the occasional hiccup. I found these cards needs just a tad more signal than a set top box to work well (I had to re-align the aerial very slightly when I first installed a PC card, there is no significant difference in the signal required by the Nova-T or DigiTV cards to work OK.
 
Gillykid, the analogue in on the DigiTV card at the moment is pretty hopeless, it only suports compo****e in, get another card forn capture if you need to do this (even my old ATI all-in-wonder was much better than the DigiTV card):rolleyes:
 
Originally posted by Pootle
erm.... are you after terrestrial or satelite digital TV...:rolleyes:

I am after the free-to-view channels (DVB?) - preferably with functions to time-shift and accept an additional s-video / analogue source. :smoke:
 
There are 2 formats DVB-T for freeview channels through your aerial and DVB-S for free to air through your satellite dish.

The freeview is for channels like BBC1,2 and 3, ITV, Channel 4 and 5, Discovery etc.

The Pinnacle card you mention is for Satellite channels which are free.

can you please clarify so that people may advise you better
 
Careful now we're going to get confused;
Digital terrestrial is free to air, which means it is not encrypted or protected in any way and can easily be viewed.

Most (I think all, but I may be wrong) digital satellite broadcast is free to view, which means it is encrypted and you need a card to decrypt it although these cards are usually free or only require a one off payment. This means a PC card requires a card module before the programmes can be viewed.

Pay services (like sky and the old ITV digital and the new top up tv) require a card.

There aren't (yet) any PC cards that can access top up tv, as none have the CAM module for a card to be inserted to decrypt the broadcast.

Nova-T, avermedia and Nebula DigiTV cards all receive the freeview channels. None can receive top up tv.

There are other cards available which can be used to pick up digital satellite, but I know nothing of these animals:D

Me? I'm happy with freeview (which is free to air) there's a limit to how many channels of boring TV I want:blush:
 
I have the AverMedia DVB-T which is quite good but as said before the software could be better. Tho they are reasonably good at updating their drivers.

Needs a good aerial as there's no booster on the card like you get with settop boxes.
 
Another fan of the Nebula here, IMHO it would be silly to go for anything else.

Oh yeh, the analogue in is crap, just get a PB-TV100 if you want a decent analogue capture card for pocket money.
 
Originally posted by aligebes
There are 2 formats DVB-T for freeview channels through your aerial and DVB-S for free to air through your satellite dish.

<pedant>there's 3 ... DVB-C is for cable, although that's free only if you want to stretch the definition a little ;) </pedant>

'Nuther :smashin: for the Nebula card here. It's a winner.
 
:eek: Eek - right! Pretty sure its DVB-T then! Basically after the Freeview chanels (ie. BBC / The Hits / Etc)!

The problem is the Shuttle I am using only has one PCI slot. The AGP slot is in use, so I either need a card that can handle analogue and TV well, or can handle one well and get a USB / Firewire device for the other.

Any good USB / Firewire device for capturing an analogue source?
 
Ok - after a lot of looking about I have decided to bite the bullet and go for the Nebula.

Other than the lack of composite in, does any one know of any noticable difference between the PCI and USB? I would prefer to go for the USB version and keep the PCI port of the shuttle free (and hopefully a bit cooler!)...
 
as long as your PC has good support for USB 2 it should be fine, but I would go for a direct connect from the nebula to the PC (that is, don't use a USB hub between). the nebula will be sending up to 6Mb(it) per seconf down the wire.
 
I have the Nebula pci version in my Shuttle, I don't think it's a heat generator. I have an AGP graphics card fitted as well.

Nebula list the updates and future update plans on their web pages. Two of the forward ones of interest are:

1. Improve Analog feed
2. Write DVD video format

You could go for the pci and use a USB cheapo analog card, which could be discarded if Nebula improvements make it unnecessary.
Steve
 
Since the analogue in on the nebula card is composite video, its never going to be very good....
 
Ahoy there! I'm a thread hijacker...

Has anyone had any experience of using TWO nebula PCI cards to create a twin-view HTPC setup? I've no idea if they would get in the way of each other/confuse the PC, but it's something I don't want to spend £240 finding out.

Alternatively, nebula could release a twin tuner card :)
 

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